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The Keep:Ideas for Tracking Sleep and Bedtimes
A recent long conversation in the Tavern inspired me to create this compendium of sleep and bedtime-tracking methods. Here are all the ones I can think of or remember from the conversation, plus notes about using cron; add yours if you have an effective one, or if you discover more pros and cons. Using Cron as a Bedtime Enforcer Since all your Dailies have to be done before cron each day, you could set your cron to be whatever time you've selected as "bedtime". Pros: *This may encourage you to get chores done earlier in the day. Cons: *You may not want to be forced into a "strict" bedtime if your schedule varies in the evening, or if you don't want to suffer from being just a few minutes late in checking off your evening tasks. *If something exciting happens at cron, like if a Quest is about to finish, you may be tempted to stay up late to see what happens. Dailies for "enough sleep" or "got to bed on time" Many players create a Daily to indicate that they got to bed on time, or that they got enough sleep the previous night (usually eight hours). Whether this daily counts for one day's evening or the next day's morning is up to the player. Checking it in the morning makes it possible to only receive credit if the right amount of sleep was actually achieved, and allows players to steer clear of their digital devices before bedtime, which may lead to more restful sleep (citation needed!) Pros: *If sleep is a requirement for a Perfect Day, it's harder to devalue and brush aside when there are a lot of other chores to be done. *Some players like their task lists to be Daily-heavy for questing or other reasons. Cons: *If a little missed sleep causes your Perfect Day bonus to become impossible as soon as the morning begins, this may be disheartening, depending on your temperament and playstyle. *Having only a Daily for sleep means the same punishment is dealt regardless of how much sleep was missed. Habits for Extra or Missed Sleep Some players find that making sleep an all-or-nothing task is less helpful than they'd like. Night owls who miss the task by staying up an extra half-hour may be tempted to just give it up for the evening and stay up even later. One solution is to use a "stacking fatigue penalty" in which you have a negative Habit that must be clicked at regular intervals if you stay up past bedtime. Anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes may be a good starting place; adjust to suit your tastes. You can implement this as a +/- Habit, and use its positive aspect to reward yourself for going to bed early by the same intervals. Pros: *Provides an incentive to go to bed even if a traditional "bedtime" has already been missed. *Allows flexibility and forgiveness in combination with a later cron time: you can stay up a bit to finish the dishes if you really want to, but it will cost you in HP to do so. *Allows an extra reward for going to bed early or catching up on missed sleep. *The color of the Habit provides a nice indicator of exactly how sleep-deprived you are. Cons: *Since Habits don't count for boss damage or other Daily-based bonuses, players who like those bonuses may wish to combine this Habit with a Daily. *Taking only a hit or two each night may not deal enough damage to make missing bedtime a real threat. Players experiencing this may need to increase the difficulty of the Habit or the frequency with which the Habit is due, and/or use it in combination with a Daily. *On the flip side, you may sometimes have a legitimate reason to stay up very late. If you enforce a stacking fatigue penalty on the same evening that you stay up watching New Year's fireworks at midnight, that may deal a huge amount of damage. You could counter this by establishing an expensive custom Reward that grants immunity for a single night, perhaps with specific conditions on when it is fair to use. Earn or pay gold for sleep time First of all, decide the time you must be on the bed to sleep. Suppose it's "the perfect time". Set a reward in HabitRPG. I name it "Lack of sleep" but you have other options. Set the cost to 0. #Everynight, right when you are ready to sleep (it's not necessarily the time you get on the bed. Don't try to cheat by recording the time before staying up to do something else like sticking to your phone or turn on the TV), record the current time to a notebook, your phone or anything possible. #Have a nice dream! #When you wake up in the morning, compare the time you went to bed last night to the perfect time. Calculate the difference in minutes. Let's call it x. #Go to HabitRPG *If you went to bed earlier x minutes, use Fix Character Value to increase x gold. *If you went to bed later x minutes, edit the Lack of sleep Reward's cost to x and click to pay. Immediately set its cost back to 0. Step 4 should be set as a Daily. Here's an example: I force myself to go to bed at 10:30 pm. The other day when I started to sleep it was 10:45 pm. So the next morning I had to pay 15 gold. Yesterday I started to sleep at 10:20 pm. This morning I increase my gold points by 10. '''Cons: '''The result may not be accurate for those who usually spend a long time on the bed unable to sleep (a.k.a insomnia). However, the act of going to bed already shows your determination to sleep on time. '''Note: '''You are free to decide: *The amount of gold to earn/pay. Maybe you can give yourself more reward and less punishment (5 gold/minute earlier and -2 gold/minute later) or vice versa *If you have to pay with health points in addition/instead for punishment (since you have to pay this "sleep debt" first thing in the morning!). In that case maybe your gold isn't sufficient or you want to be strict on yourself. *Whether to round the time by 5 minutes (perhaps for those using analog clocks) or not. Category:The Mage's Tower